The cold and fish health

[fullcreel]

Just been thinking about the state of water, ie heavily forzen and fish health. Whilst I do not remember the big freeze of '63, were many fish lost as the ice froze up lakes for weeks/monthes and the lack of interchange with surface air caused a build up toxic gas.
We lost some fish in the water tank at work last winter, (there may have been a few too many in there) but with two weeks of a frozen surface, I wuold break it every morning, but froze over within minutes.
Does anyont know what is likely to happen, should we try to get to our lakes and have an ice breaking session??

[Lman]

I know you get a build of toxic gas under the ice but what effect it has on a large lake i'm not sure.

[paul p]

Good point fullcreel, havnt got the foggiest though. As you say though as soon as you break ice it would just refreeze again. Stab at the dark i would say rainbows should be ok as they love very cold cond and hate the heat. I would love if anyone like fullcreel knows anything on this

[fullcreel]

I was thinking of our lake at Crockerton,. whis is mostly surrounded by trees, and the decomp, albeit slowed down is going to produce gasses, plus the gass from fish metabolic process.
I'f we can get there I'm willing to use my sledge hammers on the margings, then rake the bergs in, give them a chance for a breather.

[NICK R]

Why endanger your self?
carp lakes in Poland / Sweden /France / and many other places in the world can be frozen up all winter .4 months at a time , the fish survive

[headless]

The fish will settle in an area that suits them and become semi dormant and they will release less ammonia etc...the gasses given off through the break down of silt etc... will also be minimal as the bacteria die back in low temperatures

Smashing the ice will only stress them out which can lead to other problems

I have a koi pond which is only 1mtr deep and the water temperature drops down to just above 1 deg in the past and they have come through the cold snap with out any problems

As mentioned in other replies your own safety is more important

Darrell

[Banana Steve]

We are talking about a freeze for a couple of weeks, i am certain that the fish will survive.

[NICK R]

no need at all to help them


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAUvv...eature=related

[Robbiethefish]

Its not just the ice that may be a problem, but all the thousands of tons of Salt being used on the iced up roads will make its way into our rivers and streams, what impact this will have I don't know, but it will not help the situation.

[headless]

The salt will end up in the rivers but this will be diluted with the melting snow and should not cause any ill effect

Salt actually helps fish that are stressed so in fact may help as long as it is not washed in in one go

Darrell